The Guardian Legend

The Guardian Legend (1988)

by Compile, Brøderbund Software, Irem Corporation, Nintendo
Genres:Role-playing (RPG), Adventure, Shooter, Hack and slash/Beat 'em up
Themes:Action, Science fiction
Game modes:Single player
Story:In The Guardian Legend, the player controls the female guardian of Earth, a "highly sophisticated aerobot transformer". The player's mission is to infiltrate Naju, a large planet-like object which aliens sent hurtling towards the Earth. While inside, the player must activate ten safety devices in order to initialize Naju's self-destruct mechanism and destroy the alien world before it reaches Earth. Five hostile tribes of alien lifeforms are vie for control of territories within Naju,and the player needs to fight through them to successfully activate the switches and escape.Show more
user avatarAdded by @hanafubuku
Vote to bring this game to GOG and help preserve it.
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Stories about this game (2)
What’s your memory of The Guardian Legend?Share your favorite moments and see what others remember about this game.
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This was one of my favorite games on the NES, and a fantastic Metroidvania long before the term was ever coined. I loved the shmup levels, the huge map (for the time) and the large variety of weapons which facilitated different playstyles. my only qualm with the NES game was that it had a password system to bring up your game progress and the randomly generated password was like 17 digits long, meaning if you didn't write it down perfectly all your progress was lost; this is something being added to GOG could fix with save states. It's sad that more people aren't aware of this game, and I know Metroidvania and shmup fans alike would agree The Guardian Legend belongs in the list of best Mteroidvanias.
user avatar@TimDawguser avatar@TimDawg
March 14, 2025
why this never got a release out side of the NES I'll never understand. if they can get this on GOG or Evercade that'll be great. It does not deserve to be left in the dust.
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